Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 944

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

0.2 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Edward William Bok correspondence, 1881-1913, Ms. Coll. 944, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1881-1913 (inclusive)

Creator:

Bok, Edward William

Form:

Manuscripts, American -- 20th century, Manuscripts, American -- 19th century, Negatives (photographic), Poems, and Correspondence

Abstract:

Edward William Bok was a publisher who came to the United States from the Netherlands with his parents at the age of six. This collection contains correspondence to Bok from various writers and actors spanning the years 1881 to 1913.

Edward William Bok was a publisher who came to the United States from the Netherlands with his parents at the age of six. He began working in publishing at the age of thirteen. He founded the Brooklyn Magazine and, in 1886, he established the Bok Syndicate Press. Mr. Bok became editor of Ladies' Home Journal in 1889. In 1896, Bok married Mary Louise Curtis (1876-1970), the daughter of Ladies' Home Journal publisher, Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis (1850-1933). He worked as an editor at Curtis Publishing for thirty years before retiring at the end of 1919. He wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning autobiography entitled the Americanization of Edward Bok. Mr. Bok also had an autograph letter collection that he kept and expanded throughout his life.

This collection contains correspondence to Bok from various writers and actors spanning the years 1881 to 1913. Some letters from authors are in response to requests by Bok for stories or poems. Other letters are requests meetings and social events. Some letters respond to articles printed in Ladies' Home Journal. The letters are arranged alphabetically by correspondent and some letters are undated.

There is original poetry and verse included in the correspondence as well. There are two typescript poems by James Whitcomb Riley (Folder 13). Correspondence from Oliver Wendell Holmes contains an original verse and a signed photograph to Bok dated 1890 (Folder 7). A letter from Eugene Field contains a clipping of a false engagement, relating to a practical joke he played on Bok (Folder 2). Another letter from Field contains an original Valentine verse. Algernon Charles Swinburne wrote a note fulfilling Bok's request for an autograph (Folder 14). There is one image signed by Frederic William Goudy.